Ahead of joining Ninajirachi across the UK + Europe leg of her I Love My Computer tour, DJ and producer Laces today arrives with his new project Oekno I, out now via NLV Records.
A culmination of four tracks, Oekno I is the follow up to Laces’ 2024 EP Puer, which marked his first foray into ambient music. Heavily sampled from this EP, Oekno I isshaped within a moody sonic sphere, bringing to fruition his sharp, club-focused sound design that informed Puer, this time through a club music lens.
Launching this bold chapter of new music ahead of his string of shows with Ninajirachi in the UK and Europe, of the project he reveals “My previous project Puer was my first foray into darker and more subdued music and is primarily an ambient record plus a few clubbier moments. Oekno I consists of two songs that heavily sample that project, so I think of it as my reapproaching the influences that informed Puer but through a club music lens. I am always playing shows that heavily feature huge, dark club tracks and wanted to build on my own catalogue to better suit those performances.”
Dark, deconstructed and carefully curated, Oekno I features brand new tracks ‘Oelvy’, ‘Cauliflower Oem’, ‘Over the Hill‘and today’s focus ‘Doormen’, which in his own words is “a track that has laid dormant as a demo in the dark recesses of my hard drive for something like 6 years. It is an electric, microtonally resonant, layered club track that is finally being exposed to the outside world after all this time as a reticent unreleased club tool I would frequently demo in secret at raves and dancefloors over the years.”
A mainstay across Australia’s electronic underground, Laces released his debut EP FIELD FALLACY XVI on Nina Las Vegas’ label NLV Records in 2021 and swiftly followed by his club-centric remix EP FIELD FALLACY HAPTICS, spearheading the hardstyle revival within online music communities and Naarm’s underground club scene. Continuing to evolve his sound, Laces explored new sonic territories in 2022 with tracks like ‘Pace‘, featuring UK-based Illegal Data producer TEEN, ‘BORING’ with Grasps, and collaborations with the likes of Ninajirachi, Kenta204, Scan, and Sus1er.
In the time since his debut, he’s gone on to feature on an iPhone 13 Pro advertising campaign across in-store billboards and social media and tour nationwide, commanding dance floors all over the world, from dark basements to park raves, previously supporting the likes of Bladee, Thaiboy Digital, μ-Ziq, Mechatok, Umru, Jamesjamesjames, Iglooghost, Blood of Aza, Kavari, Nammy Wams and Mike Midnight.
Oekno I is out now, buy/stream here
TOUR DATES
Sat Mar 21 – SWG3 – Glasgow UK*
Sun Mar 22 – Whelans – Dublin IRL* (SOLD OUT)
Wed Mar 25 – Gorilla – Manchester UK* (SOLD OUT)
Thu Mar 26 – Concorde2 – Brighton UK* (SOLD OUT)
Fri Mar 27 – Colour Factory – London UK* (SOLD OUT)
Sat Mar 28 – Strange Brew – Bristol UK* (SOLD OUT)
*supporting Ninajirachi